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Notes
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This is a picture of calm. The gleaming water is flat and the reflections are perfect. Even the billowing clouds seem to pause overhead to cast shadows on the river. No wind stirs the sails, no flags lift in a breeze and the men in the boat are crouched and still. The painting could be seen as purely decorative and restorative, but the black dots making a semi-circle on the still water are cork floats defining the outline of a fishing net. Fishing was one of the industries that gave the Dutch Republic its wealth. These fishermen are ordinary working men, thought worthy of a picture because they were part of the pride that the Dutch had in their building of a new nation: the taming of rivers, the digging and reinforcing of canals and dams, the creation of a new land from the sea by hard labour.
Title
A River with Fishermen drawing a Net
Date
1630-5
Medium
Oil on oak
Measurements
H 46.3 x W 62.8 cm
Accession number
NG5846
Acquisition method
Bequeathed by Mrs Mary Venetia James, 1948
Work type
Painting
The National Gallery, London
Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England
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